Development Strategy Institute (DSI) Worldbank
REPORT ON
SUSTAINABLE USE OF LAND AND WATER RESOURCES in regional MASTER SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PALNNING for MEKONG DELTA
UNDER THE CONTEXT OF VIETNAM INTERGARATION
INTO globalL economics
Prepared by: Associate Prof. Dr. Hoang Sy Dong
Dr. Nguyen Van Phuong
Msc. Nguyen Quanh Vinh
Eng. Trinh Quang Vinh
Hanoi, 2009
Contents
Abbreviation
Abstract
Part I
Objective, contents and methods of the study
I. Objectives of the study
II. Contents of the study
III. Method of the study
part II
analysis and assessment of the reviewed-adjusted-amended regional master development plan to 2010 and of land and water resources in mekong delta
I. Analysis and assessment of the Reviewed-adjusted-amended Regional Master Development Plan to 2010 for Mekong Delta
II. Impact of international and national context on development planning for Mekong Delta
III. Analysis and assessment of land and water resources in Mekong Delta under the context of Vietnam intergration into global economics
IV. Case studies on utilization of land and water resources in regional development planning and production of agriculture products for export
part IiI
recommendations for improvement of quality and effectiveness of utilization of land and water in regional development planning
for mekong delta to 2020
I. General principles
II. Orientations for planning of land and water resources
III. Recommendations for sustainable production of agriculture commodities for export in regional development planning under the context of Vietnam intergaration into global economics
conclusion
references
ABBREVIATIONS
DoI = Development of infrastruture
RS = Resources;
CE = Cooperated Exploitation;
HRD = Human resources development;
S&S = State and Society;
IP = Industrialized period;
AP = Authority and people;
BP = Bussiness /production;
IC = Investment and cooperation;
CC = Central city;
GEV = Gained economic value;
WR= Water resource;
LR = Land resource.
DSI = Development Strategy Institute
MONRE = Ministry of Natural Resources and Envirenment
MARD = Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Abstracts
Planning in general and socio-economic developemnt planning of Vietnam in particular, is an emerging issue at National Assemble, Prime Ministry Office, Sectors as well as at local authorites. In the world, countries and international organizations are actively changing in developmet planning which is aiming at improving the quality of planning contents and feasibility of the plans and making plans to be more consistent with the reaslistic conditions.
Regional Master Socio-economic Development Plan for Mekong Delta to 2010 had been reviewed, adjusted and amended and, Prime Minister had authorized Minister of Planning and Investment (MPI) to approve the plan in 2007. However, due to the changes of circumstance of the world and of the country such as financial and economic crisises...since, it reconized that the plan is in needs of some adjustments and amendment. Moreover, although natural resources in the region are rich, but the region is considered as a poor one plus shortage of human resources, since the region is classified as underdeveloped.
Analysis and assessment of land and water resources and of models of production of comodities for export conducted by DSI and funded by Worldbank indicated that Vietnam has not paid attention to this contents nor notivated the methods of researches. Study of three above issues, under the context of Vietnam intergaration into global economics, is very necessary. Moreover, analysis of constraints, challenges, advantages and oppoturnities in resoures utilization will contribute in identification of development oppoturnities, of commodities production for export and of poverty reduction chance.
Currently, Prime Minister has assigned MPI to conduct socio-economic development planning for six regions from now to the year of 2020. Since, analysis and assessment of the reviewed-adjusted-ammended socio-economic development plan to the year 2010 and review of utilization of land and water resources and of comodity production models for export are very necessary for regional master socio-economic development planning to the year 2020.
The study directly provide recommendations for improvement of the quality of the regional master socio-economic development plan and national laud use plans to the year 2020.The study was carried out in a participatory approach by a consortium of the Section of Research and Department for Productive Industries Development of DSI and South Water Resources Planning Institute and Centre for Land Investigation and Planning with application of many sets of tools like SWOT, GIS...
The study team would like to express greate thanks to Worldbank, DSI, especially scientific adviser Prof. Dr Ngo Doan Vinh, Chairman of DSI and Msc Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Director of South Water Resources Planning Institute and senior expert Doan Hong Quang for his valuable contribution.
PART II
Objective, contents and methods of the study
I. Objective of the study
Analysis and assessment of the reviewed-adjusted-ammended socio-economic development plan for Mekong Delta are aiming at improvement of quality and feasibility of regional socio-economic development plans and making the plans sustainable until the year 2020 under context of industrialization and modernization and Vietnam intergaration into global economics based on the changed approaches and indepth analysis and assessment of land and water resources and of case studies on export commodity production models with consideration of their potential, compatitive advantages and scientific and realistic facts.
II. Contents of the study
Based on the TOR provided by the Worldbank, the study group has defined main duties of this study are as follows:
a. Analyse and assess methodology approaches applied, tools used and contents of the reviewed-adjusted-ammended master socio-economic development plan to the year 2010 in Mekong Delta; and support regional master socio-economic development planning to the year 2020.
b. Analyse and assess management and utilization of land and water resources; conduct case studies at local level and the results of case studies will provide input for regional master socio-economic development planning in Mekong Delta with special focus on sustainability, inter-regional linkage and intensive farming of export commodities production with own branch names under the context of Vietnam intergration into global economics;
c. Based on the fact findings (both advantages and constraints), management interventions for sustainable and effective utilization of land and water resources that to increase production productivity, quantity of comodities, especially export goods, are recommended for regional master socio-economic development planning for Mekong Delta to the year of 2020.
d. Scope of the study is bounded within Mekong Delta, focus on land and water resources utilization in production of agriculture goods for export (such products like rice, catfish, shrimp, and fruit) with consideration of inter-sectorial and inter-national linkages and advantages of reform, open policies and promotion of Vietnam intergration into global economics.
III. Method of the study
The study is implemented with participatory approaches with participation of many stakeholders which were led by DSI. The consortium encompasses of DSI of MPI, General Land Administration Department of MoNRE, South Water Resources Planning Institute of MARD and of scientists, managers who are currently working in Mekong Delta.
Analitical and expertised methods are used for this study at the aim of satisfying objective and duties stated in the TOR which include assessment of the approaches, tools, constraints whose findings will be served for review, adjustment and amendment of the plans for Mekong Delta to the year 2020.
Statistical and expert-advised methods with the tools like WSOT, GIS are used for review of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges and models on management and utilization of land and water resources. The findings will provide input for regional master socio-economic development planning to the year 2020 for Mekong Delta
Expert-advised methods with the support of the tools are used in planning aiming at improving quality and feasibility of the regional master socio-economic development plan to the year 2020 for Mekong Delta.
For implementation of these tasts, the Study Team proposes following steps:
Step 1: Apply WSOT to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges
Step 2: Apply statistic, GIS... to assessing management and utilization of land and water resources in the region; conduct case studies at local level, on production of export agriculture comodities. The results of case studies will provide input for regional masterocio-economic development plans to the year 2020 in Mekong Delta;
Step 3: Apply expert-advised methods for analysing, explaining, selecting and recommending measures for utilization of resources and for production of export agriculture commodities models;
Research on sustainable utilization of land and water resources and case studies on production of export agriculture commodities models ecompass of three sections as below:
Section 1: objective, contents and methods of the study
Section 2: Analyse and assess and review regional master socio-economic development plan to the year 2010 for Mekong Delta and of utilization of land and water resources in Mekong delta. For this section, the Study Team also conducts case studies on export comodities at the places.
Section 3: Recommend measures for improvement of quality and effectiveness of utilization of land and water resources in regional master socio-economic development planning to the year 2020 for Mekong Delta
Moreover, the Study Team also applies some tools like semi-structured interview, macro-economic prediction modelling, workshops, internet, ... with multi-sectoral coordination and multi-national coorperation under the dialectical relations between these two types of resources aiming at improvement of quality and scientific contents in recommended management interventions.
PART II
ANALYSIS, ASSESSMENT OF THE REVIEWED REGIONAL MASTER DEVELOPMENT PLAN TO THE YEAR 2010 AND OF LAND AND WATER RESOURCES IN MEKONG DELTA
I. Analysis and assessment of the reviewed-adjusted-amended regional master development plan to the year 2010 for Mekong Delta
1.1. Methodology approaches, tools used in planning
1.1.1. Approaches in socio-economic development planning
Theoretically, participatory approaches, which are led by DSI, are applied for regional master socio-economic development planning which are considered as a major change and progress in the development planning, but in somehow, top-down appraoches in planning are still existed and applied. Since, a Chairmanship Board was established, but it does not encompass all concerned stakeholders. The indepth study on the reviewed-adjusted-amended plan for Mekong Delta to the year 2010 showed the lack of references and data sources or citation from the other sectors or experts of the other sectors.
Organize workshops and conferences with participants from Ministries and Departments under MPI for gathering comments or registration of research themes. However, the review showed that the results of researchs had not fully been used in review, adjustment and amendment of the regional planning. Contribution of Ministries, Sectors and Departments by writing (some pages) and direct oral comments at the workshops (normally three workshops) were insufficient. The decision on establishemnt of Appraisal Committee and comments of Ministries and Departments were just formalized and unqualified due to shortage of fund.
The researches revealed that in order to bring into play the strengths and mitigate weaknesses, and challenges in utilization and management of land and water resources and in production of important export comodities, it requires active paricipation of senior experts from these sectors. Only this way enables to improve quality and feasibility of the reviewed-adjusted-amended regional master plan. Moreover, it seems to be that the review, adjustment and amendment of the regional matser plan has been implemented without analysis and assessment of national and international context, especially of the circumstence of the world financial and economic crisises and of Vietnam intergration into global economics.
1.1.2. Application of tools in development planning
Although it was not described in the report, but the Study Team recognized the following tools were used in the review, adjustment and amendment of the regional master socio-ecoomic development plan for Mekong Delta: Policies of the Party, Government; Decree 92; Technical guidelines for regional master socio-ecoomic development planning (technical contents of the guidelines were used for reference); macro economic prediction modeling for a 5-year period; and SWOT.
For spatial socio-economic issues, the Study Team also resognized the short use of GIS. It just described some functions of GIS, but not yet applied it for the analysis and calculation of figure in spatial planning so its use effectiveness is low. The study result showed that structured interviews, conferences, workshops, comments, internet...were also used for improvement of quality and effectiveness for regional planning in general, and for Mekong Delta in particular. However, participatory approaches need to be more comprehensive and the tools, especially guidelines on regional master development planning which were approved by Ministery level, are in needs.
1.1.3. Method for land and water resources planning
Major difference between regional master socio-economic development planning and land use and water resources planning is that MONRE and MARD have issued “technical guidelines on land use planning“ and “technical guidelines on water resource planning“. The guidelines both described the approaches and concrrete methods for planning. Moreover, the planning experts used the tools more effectively and progressively compared with the experts of the socio-economic sectors which are applicaton of GIS and remote sensing technique...
However, land and water resource planning is till suffering the low cost norm and short period of implementation. Appraisal procedure for these two resources is till formalized.
1.2. Contents of the reviewed-adjusted-amended regional master socio-economic development plan for Mekong Delta to the year 2010
1.2.1. Advantages of the reviewed-adjusted-amended development plan
a. Amended version is based on the mechanism of market-oriented economics
The contents of the amended regional plan are of quite general orientations and not as detailed as the plans which were prepared in the period of central planning because teh curren regionl plan was prepared mainly based on the mechanism of market-oriented economics. This judgement is proved by the result of analysis, assessment of development human resources, socio-economic condition, conceptualizaion, and objectives of planning and development direction of sectors, socio-economic spatial planning, and solutions for implementation e.t.c. which are described in the reviewed-adjusted-amended regional master socio-economic development plan to the year 2010 for Mekong Delta.
This is the difference compared to the original regional master socio-economic development plan to the year 2010 which was approved in the ninties of XX century. This different points have principly confirmed that Vietnam is reformed and adapted to the mechanism of market-oriented economics. Since, development planning in general and, regional master socio-economic development planning in particular, have complied with this principle.
b. Comprehensiveness, long-life with fundamental development interventions
The reviewed-adjusted-amended regional master socio-economic development plan to the year 2010 contains comprehensive and realistic issues (predicted indicators were lowered compared to the ones of the approved version) and timeframe of a five year period which seems much more suitable, especially timeframe allocated for development of infrastructure like habor, air port, urbane.
The deeper study of the Study Team showed that in the reviewed-adjusted-amended regional master socio-economic development plan for Mekong Delta, the objectives, economic growth rate, annual GDP per capita, economic structure and orintation, development solutions for agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, industry, construction, services and envirenmental issues to the year 2010 were well analyzed.
c. Proposal of frameworks based on which provinces will formulate theri development plan
According to the Decree 92, development planning must be based on the existing regional master socio-economic developmet plans. Thus, the reviewed-adjusted-amended regional master socio-economic development plan for Mekong Delta is very important foundation for provicial and sectorial development planning.
Nevertheness, main contents for provincial and sectorial development planning to base on are inter-regional issues like road network, sea habor systems, communication facility, land and forest and water resources, tourist network, industry and economic zoning.
Objective of concrrete adjustments are proposed in accordance with common development trend that are to low down the indicators for the report of the reviewed-adjusted-amended regional master socio-economic development plan for Mekong Delta com to the year 2010 compared with the indicators stated in the old version which ahs been approved by Prime Minister and that to make the indicators to be more relevant with the realistic conditions.
1.2.2. Constraints of the reviewed-adjusted-amended development plan
a. Short vision and ambitious objectives
Analysis of the reviewed-adjusted-amended regional master socio-economic development plan for Mekong Delta to the year 2010 revealed that plan for the remaining period of three years is of too short vision. Important things now are to analyse and find out the advantages, dificulties, strength, weaknesses, oppotunities, challenges, then to suggest useful recommendations or adjustments for making the reviewed plan usefull. These are the reasons behind the review, adjustment and ammendment of the existing regional master socio-economic development plan under the context of industrialization and intergration of country into global economics.